He also announced that £240 million saved from New Homes Bonus will be made available for local councils to use on adult social care in 2017-18.

Speaking in the House of Commons he told MPs that the increase in the social care precept could raise up to £208 million could be raised in 2017/18 and £444 million in 2018/19.

Councils are currently allowed to raise bills by up to 1.99 per cent to cover the cost of general services and up to 2 per cent each year to pay for social care under a new precept introduced by George Osborne.

An elderly womanCredit:
John Stillwell/PA

But a new plan to deliver an immediate cash injection will permit councils to collect the six per cent increase due between now and 2020 over two years, as long as they do not collect further payments in the third year.

Mr Javid said lifting the adult social care precept will add just £1 per month to the average council tax bill and insisted bills will be no higher in 2019/20 than they would have been before the changes were introduced.

Adding that there is a "need for action" to meet the costs of caring for vulnerable people - with councils spending billions of pounds each year.

Unions have warned the move would create a "social care postcode lottery" as richer councils would be able to raise more money from higher bills than those in disadvantaged areas.

Liberal Democrats denounced teh government's announcement as a "gutless stealth tax rise" which will leave councils to "shake down the poorest in society for more cash" while failing to address the "national crisis" in social care.

Joe Anderson, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, said on Twitter: "Government response by @sajidjavid to Social Care crisis like "putting plaster on patient that needs a triple by pass".

Unions have warned that it would create a "social care postcode lottery"

The Local Government Information Unit have also dismissed the announcement as a “sticking plaster”.

Jonathan Carr-West, the think tank's Chief Executive, said: "After a decade of public debate all we have is a sticking plaster of increased council tax and no long term solution for the greatest public policy question of our age."

Britain’s elderly population is growing rapidly but the numbers receiving state-funded care are shrinking.

Councils have seen their budgets slashed by around 40 per cent since the introduction of austerity measures in 2010 and have tried to shield social care from the brunt of the cuts but have nevertheless resorted to rationing it only to the most frail.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, has warned that far more radical action may be needed to help older people than the plans to channel extra council tax money into funding care.